French Open fashion- Aces and faults

Another Grand Slam, another kit watch. Here’s what’s been catching eyes this time.

THOSE WHO ‘ACED’ IT

It’s all in the subtlety. We love Serena’s blue and navy trainers with the rose detailed back and Nike logo.

When the skies were a miserable grey, Timea Bacsinszky and Garbine Muguruza brought out the sunshine. Timea wore a turquoise dress as she skilfully took on the conditions and opponents, winning as fresh as mint. Garbine opted for pale yellow in the form of the Adidas by Stella McCartney cut out skirt with matching three quarter length top, accessorising with her trademark smile.

CHALLENGE!

Kits at RG this year have triggered a lot of discussion. While the Adidas Y3 collection was initially inspired by the Dazzle camouflage of ww1 and its distorting of perceptions (as opposed to disguising), spectators just saw zebras. Lots of zebras. Fighting against each other (Thiem and Zverev) or standing out in the most audacious of ways. Ana Ivanovic went full on with matching visor and wristbands, a splash of red on her shoes and on the back of the dress in the form of a ‘Y’ and Simona Halep and Angelique Kerber… they had suspenders.

Alize Lim followed last year’s playsuit with a dungaree style one. Designed for Le Coq Sportif, it was either seen as a great example of on court individuality or a disaster.

So have kit designs gone too far? And should there be regulations put in place? Not to Wimbledon standard but guidelines for brands to follow in terms of design? Especially as its increasingly common for a player to be competing against someone who is wearing the exact same kit, which may not be a problem for them but can be for the viewers.

REPLAY

WARM UP

Genie went super short in a cobalt blue polo which, while neat in design, did cause some confusion (HST Trudi: Is this a dress or a long top? She looks like a toddler) but elsewhere there was a lot of layering. See Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia (twinning) and Kiki Bertens.

Some chose to layer under their vests (Barbora Strycova and Francesca Schiavone)